MESA board selection to replace ESS

PCW,
Thanks for info...I just knew that I was incorrectly doing something wrong with the commands I sent, just did not know what it was...You have explained it...I am on phone with my friend right now and had him check that it works as you described, it does!

I have ordered another 7i76e which should be here by tomorrow or day after, in case it is a bad board...

MIke

5 ms latency could cause all of the observed symptoms

LinuxCNC will time out a lot of the communications
resulting in breakage while registering the card

PCW,
I hope this may solve my friends's issue...I went digging around in my pile of computers and found one that may be suitable...The computer runs an Asus MB, AMD Athlon 64 bit cpu...It already had LCNC 2.7.14 on it, so I checked the latency and it runs at <11,000...going to give it a try, but won't be tomorrow...I will let you know the outcome...

Thanks for your help

Mike

PCW,
UPDATE: Today I got to my friend's shop taking my computer as mentioned in previous post, low latency...I removed the HDD from his computer and installed in my computer, did a latency test and to my suprise it presented a 3.9+ million latency...My friend remembered he had an extra computer with both SATA and IDE ports on it...I tried that one with the SATA drive that has LCNC 2.8 installed (the same HDD that I used to test/setup with the 7i76e) on the first and second computer, and in that case I got another 3.9+ million latency...Disappointing...

I did experience a difference today when testing both the second and third computer when starting LCNC from terminal (as usual), I was able to see a list of i/o pins on startup without the previous errors I had experienced with the hm2_eth initializing, although it kicked out a .hal error which I could easily track down...After several restarts of LCNC the old error showed up and I was not able to start LCNC again...

When I tested the third computer today, I installed the same SATA HDD as had been done on first and second computers...About 20 failed boot attempts, all yeilding beep error codes (I did not have a list beep codes for that mobo and no internet access) the computer booted into the O/S (Stretch)...I then checked latency (3.9+million)...I then openend terminal, pinged with low average 1.x m/s...Started LCNC and it threw .hal errors, (no hm2_eth errors)...Again I got farther into the LCNC boot process than before...After two boots, the same hm2_eth error occurred and I was no longer able to get beyond that stage...

My conclusions at this time...The problem may lie with either the LCNC 2.8.0 application, or some difference between SATA and IDE, or the HDD has problems...I am leaning towards the HDD problems presently, but I do not know with certainty...

I am going to try testing this weekend by using an IDE drive with 2.8.0 installed on it...Then a different SATA than the originl drive with 2.8.0...Maybe I will learn something then...If not it may be the 7i76e...

I will keep you posted...

Mike

What OS are you using?
that is, what does

uname -a

report?

PCW,
results of uname -a
Linux shop 4.9.0-14-rt-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Debian 4.9.240-2 (2020-10-30 x86_64 GNU/Linux

3+ ms latencies really look like BIOS or kernel issues to me

Are all power management options disabled in the BIOS?
This means EIST, any speed switching, any C states > C1
disabled. You also might try the latest LinuxCNC image (Buster)
in case you have a kernel issue.

JT,
I should have made mention that I did do the upgrade to 2.8 from 2.7.15...My apologies if it caused any confusion...I originally advised PJ to order from you and get the 2.7 version as I was not familiar with the 2.8 as yet...I don't remember doing an latency test after he received the HDD from you...After reading that 2.8 had the gantry squaring I told PJ that I was going to do the upgrade and explained to him why...

PCW,
I went through BIOS and disabled everything that had anything to do with power management...As I am not at my friend's shop right now I am not able to access his computer/BIOS, but at the first time of set up I thought I covered that as being an issue....One thing I do remember, his computer is a 6 core and I did not find any means to disable most of those cores...I will have to go through BIOS again...We will keep in mind doing a Buster image if we can't get it fixed...I have not run into any issues with the Stretch image and find it very stable IMHO...

Mike